Hotel Salvation - Sunday 19th November 5pm

On our filmic trip round the world, we are stopping off in India this Sunday at 5.00 for Hotel Salvation. Specifically, we go to Varanasi; for those of you have been watching Sue Perkins trip down the Ganges on TV, you will know that Varanasi is THE place to go for Hindus to die and to be cremated on the side of their sacred Ganges river, so much so that hotels have sprung up for these people to spend their last days. Well, this is the desire of 77 year old Daya, who decides he is about to die. The film is a comedy drama about Daya and his son Rajiv who travel there and book in to ‘Hotel Salvation’ to wait...there journey of joint discovery should give us moments of joy and laughs as well as plenty of reasons to think.

God's Own Country - Sunday 12th November 5pm

God's Own Country has been impressing critics and audiences alike since it was voted the best film at Edinburgh Film Festival earlier this year. As someone who came to Cumbria from Yorkshire it comes as a relief after looking at films based around war to find something more familiar.  But the world of hill farms, not dissimilar to our own fell farms, is a hard one and none more so than here where the young man John feels himself imprisoned into running the farm after his father’s stroke even though he would rather be off to university with his friends. He is falling into depression when hope arrives in the form of a Romanian farm worker, Gheorge who possibly knows more about farming than John but certainly creates the love interest in the film. And with beautiful views of Yorkshire, what more could you want?

Memories of the 60s: The Graduate + Discussion At Rheged - Sunday 5th November 5pm

We are off to Rheged this week for a 'two pronged' evening; we start with a new 50th Anniversary 4K digital version of the classic The Graduate at 5.00pm, followed by a discussion on 60s films. For those who may never have seen it (does such a person exist..?!), or who may have forgotten, 'The Graduate' is played by Dustin Hoffman in the part that made him famous. He takes on both Mrs Robinson (Ann Bancroft) and her daughter (Katherine Ross) and they are all backed by the  music of Simon and Garfunkel.

The added discussion on 60's film will be led by two professors from University College who have spent three years gathering memories of 1960s films. They will tell us what they have found out and add your thoughts to their findings.

So, all round, it should be an evening of great memories for us to remember!

In Syria - Sunday 29th October 5pm

Our October films have been dominated, with one exception, with war and occupation but all of them are very different. This is present day Damascus and told from the point of view of an ordinary family caught up in the never-ending conflict. In Syria (Insyriated) is almost entirely shot inside the last occupied apartment in a clock on a single day where a mother Oum Yazan (Hiam Abbass) tries to hold together her family and neighbours. Nearly all the actors, children included, are Syrian refugees showing us something of what life might be like now in Syria.

The Age of Shadows - Sunday 22nd October 5pm

South Korea are our hosts this Sunday at 5.00 for The Age of Shadows, which promises to be "a giddily compelling South Korean movie about war, spies and resistance history"  - so says Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times – while Geoffrey Macnab in the Independent thinks it "is pulsating storytelling, suspenseful and often very stylish too". Set within the Korean resistance, fighting for independence from Japan, there are infiltrators and double agents on both sides and leaks all round. 'Trust no-one' seems to be the adage. Expect an action packed thriller!